Sisters 10, 12 Arrested for Abducting 1-Year-Old Neighbor for Ransom

ENID, Okla. – Detectives arrested a 12-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister on a kidnapping complaint on Thursday after they allegedly abducted their neighbor's 1-year-old son and held him for $200,000 ransom.

Brandon Wells was safe back at home Thursday night, hours after intruders broke into his family's residence and took him while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said.

Sheila Wells told FOX News Radio she thinks a possible motive behind the kidnapping was that the 10-year-old might have been upset with her.

"She used to hang out with my other children who are about her age. I banned her from the house when I saw some behavior I didn't like. That's the only thing I could think of why she would take him," she told FOX News Radio.

The pre-teen siblings, who because of their ages weren't identified, are accused of sneaking into Wells' home about 5:30 a.m., taking Brandon and other items and leaving a note.

"... if you want to see your son again then you won't call police and report him missing and you will leave $200,000 on the sofa tonight and we will return your son back safe," police said the note read. The note was signed, "the kidnappers."

Besides the note, the abductors allegedly took $20, diapers, a stroller and other baby supplies from the home.

The plan began to unravel when the girls' mother saw them with the child, whom she recognized as her neighbor's toddler, police said. They told their mother they had found the boy on the corner, according to police.

While the girls' mother tried to find Sheila Wells' telephone number, her 12-year-old daughter returned to Wells' residence and told the woman it was the younger sister who was responsible for the abduction, Capt. Dean Grassino said.

Wells immediately retrieved her child from the girls' home and police were called about 6:13 a.m.

"I've been doing this 18 1/2 years, and this is the first time I know of when a 10- and a 12-year-old kidnapped a 1-year-old," Grassino said. "It definitely ranks up there with the unusual crimes."

Wells said she knew the girls, and the younger one had spent some time at her home.

"She told me she wanted to be his new mommy," Wells told the Enid News and Eagle. "When I walked in the door, she was trying to make excuses to her mom."

The girls appeared in Garfield County District Court Thursday afternoon and were taken to Community Intervention Center for juveniles. They haven't been formally charged.

"They know what's right from wrong," Sheila Wells told FOX News Radio. "So I do believe they should be locked away until they're 18. And they do need some counseling."

Daniel Wells, the boy's father, said his son seems to have made it through the ordeal unscathed and is acting as if nothing happened.